Research Task: Visual Illusions

Reflections:

• On the question of which did I see first, the duck or the rabbit – I unfortunately have seen this before so I recognised it straight away but for a split second I saw the duck then the rabbit!
• I think the way they are drawn is definiltey a factor to their success: for the duck/rabbit this works well also because of the angle and placing of the ears of the rabbit which are in a natural place going up and to the side and yet the same can be said for the beak of a duck. The slight mouth of the rabbit does not detract from the head of the duck at all and of course since its in black and white there is not issue with colour e.g. green mallard duck may sway the person towards duck more than rabbit. A grey rabbit may sway the person viewing more towards rabbit than if they saw brown fleckly feathers.
• I also think that the mark making is all diagonal lines also taking you left to see the ears/beak and right to the head/mouth so it works for you to see both
• For the skull/children, I think the point is to contrast two opposing aspects: pleasant and unpleasant, perhaps life and death and perhaps to hint at the fragility of life? For this one I see the skull first as it jumps out as an overall image that is bigger than the detail inside of the children but then the detail in the internal image draws you in and you cant help focus on it – if it were more abstract this would be harder.
• For the clown you need to turn the drawing upside down to see the effect – a smiling clown rather than the sad one you see first. Here too a contrast between sad and happy but also perhaps the idea that one can be both sad and happy or that these states change as well as intermingle? I find this one to be the most comic, perhaps given they are clowns and perhaps because smiles and frowns do affect us too when we see them. Also the fact that you have to put it upside down is playful and interactive so I think this adds to the effect. To do this the artist has had to join the two drawings in a way that make sense in both ways up and still merge together which is quite clever